Eh… he’s basically pissed because he got snubbed by Jinx on the last page. In case you didn’t notice, he was giving Jinx the puppy dog eyes something major. I’m chalking up his current evilness to being pissed off at that.

I think there’s a few more things going through his head than work tbh. In the pervious panel, you see how hurt he is that he wasn’t invited. On top of that, the victims are phsycics. He’s worried about her and doesn’t know how to express it. There’s probably even a little cognitive dissonance in there- I think I remember him denying the fact that people like her even have souls, but now he’s worried because people like her are dying. He’s slowly being forced to admit that his world isn’t black and white. I think he’s acting out in a rather mild way here, considering how stunted he is emotionally.

Totally agree. If you look pat his downright psychotic tendencies and the eternal inner struggle between his beliefs and his reality… Arthur is just a teenage boy, probably scared, surrounded by a fuckton of situations he can’t control and with the feeling that he has no one to relay on. In that sense, his behavior is really understandable….

While I agree that Arthur isn’t that likable right now, he’s still so very interesting, flawed and well-written! Like, his behaviour is so problematic but it makes so much sense (and may even hint towards character development as Griffon said) and man, he’s so… human right now.

so in a previous panel, creepy fingers signals Mary as the devils own, as in the devils own sell from the rhyme. sucks to know there were 9 previous victims who couldnt be helped, and now Mary is next (unless arthur rips his arms off or something)

Oh, Arthur! You’ve got the “angsty tsundere teen” vibe down to a T! That said, Arthur has become my favorite character because, no matter what crazy sh*t he does, I just CAN’T hate him. He’s just a moody teenager in a scary world, doing what moody teenagers do best: throw violent tantrums left and right. Only his tantrums are more *violent* than most.

And about the page… the plot thickens!! Poor Mary just can’t catch a break, now there’s (yet another) murderous weirdo around, but this time, he’s directly going after *her*. I can’t wait for more!!!

People complaining about Arthur’s behaviour…well actually it’s well-written and justified. While I adore the series as a whole I actually find Mary the hardest to like. While yes she is flawed, which is great in a character, she strung Gaki along and then broke his heart, constantly puts herself in positions of danger and acts all like the big I-am whereas other times she’s acted like a scared naive puppy. And to top if off she often acts the victim when she’s not. While I get it’s a progression of character, and an artful one at that, I actually dislike Mary currently, not as a character but as a person. However I’m sure that’ll be rectified after seeing her in action!

Yeah, Mary is really pushing it now, what she did to poor Gaki has no name. But maybe searching confort in (pretty much) everyone’s arms is her way to cope. You know, everyone has their coping mechanism: Arthur gets violent and clings to his faith, Fragile takes everything head-on for her family, Tristan behaves like a cynic biatch, Gaki just shrugs everything off…. and Mary accepts affection from anyone who offers it because it’s the only comforting thing she can find in this crazy world she was thrown into against her will and beliefs (of course, that is my personal interpretation)

Eh, as someone who’s been in Mary’s shoes I’m somewhat more sympathetic towards her than most people would be. Not only has she been locked up for such a long time that she probably hasn’t explored or even thought about her sexuality that much (it took me way too long to figure out that I just wasn’t into dudes), but she made it pretty obvious that she wasn’t interested when Gaki kept trying to push for a deeper relationship.

Yeah, she should’ve called it off sooner, but it takes two to tango, people. And I find Gaki to be equally as at fault for how poorly things ended. He should’ve been more upfront about wanting a relationship and ask Mary if she was even interested. He could’ve called it off when it was clear that she wasn’t willing to give him the commitment he was looking for.

Basically, people need to stop blaming just Mary for “stringing Gaki along”. Things could’ve been handled way better on BOTH sides. End story.

Oh, I’m not arguing 😛 I more meant to say that with what she’s been dragged through, it’s a bit impressive that she’s even still getting out of bed in the morning. But that’s one of the compelling things about the characters — folks who are every different variety of Not Okay, doing what seems right and/or the best they can manage at the time. Adorably vexing as I find Arthur, even, the kid’s running on a lifetime of nightmares so I can’t be too hard on him.
It’s good fun :-3

I think the thing that helps in Arthur’s case is that his flaws aren’t overlooked by the other characters, and I like that he’s allowed to be in the wrong. Pretty much most of these characters aren’t going to get over their issue overnight, and they’re going to be making mistakes.

But yeah, I guess my previous comment was just a product of endless “omg poor Gaki omg Mary is sooo mean!!1” attitude that’s persisted for some time now. I feel like people need to seriously lay off the Mary hate and take a step back to assess the situation from both sides. The fact that this is an outlook that’s gone on for so long in our society is what makes it really frustrating to look at here!

Indeed — and that their mistakes do have consequences.
But yeah: I can’t really think poorly of Gaki for mistaking the hook-up for the start of a relationship, but neither can I fault Mary for trying to deal with that by rebuffing or ignoring the “So are we dating now?” overtures rather than confront someone who’s being generally kind to her. It’s a very natural mutual awkwardness 😛

And I think it’s also worth considering that someone doesn’t necessarily INTEND to “string someone along” the way Mary had. She herself had no idea how she felt, and maybe she actually did try to like Gaki. I’ve tried to force myself to like someone the same way he liked me, and in some way you could say that I once “strung” a couple guys along because I tried really hard to like them back. It just didn’t pan out the way they wanted, and yes they told me that they were really hurt in the end – but it was better to have realized that it was completely one-sided than to let it go too far, hoping that eventually maybe someday I’ll be able to force myself to “change”. Not everyone has the luxury of understanding their sexuality early on. I was a late bloomer, so my sympathies are with Mary.